THIS POST WAS TAKEN DOWN ON 6/9/2020
POST TAKEN DOWN
THIS POST WAS TAKEN DOWN ON 6/9/2020
Category Archives: Inspiration
SEND FOOD TO YOUR TOP CUSTOMERS FOR CHRISTMAS- or not
TEAM,
Just a little tip.
A long long standing tradition of sending your client something (especially something generic) like Christmas food is probably money wasted (unless of course it’s homemade cookies or something sentimental, then please do!!!!). I would almost tear up when a CUSTOMER of ours Laurie Wenger from Wenger roofing would bring in a pile each year. That’s good stuff.
20 years ago or so, I don’t even remember the person or vendor, I guy bought me wild rice he picked himself. Led to a story and I still remember it. Kind of cool. Weird. But cool.
I’m talking the generic stuff: cheese trays, popcorn, etc.
While it’s never WRONG to send something to your client.
BE BETTER.
They Irish to the core? Send em a bottle of Jameson on St. Patricks Day.
Do they eat out every Saturday night at Schwartz’s? Call Schwartz’s tell them next time they come in you got the tab.
BE BETTER. BE AMAZING. BE THOUGHTFUL WITH EMOTIONAL INTENT.
Send a book on a follow up to a conversation you had with them.
Don’t believe me, here is an actual picture of food people brought into Drexel at our downtown building just today.
Who knows who it came from!!!? Of course kind of sad, but reality. And I am sure reality at most places. Surely, not what our valued partners that sent it to us hoped! I know they envisioned me opening it up, reading the card, saying, josh that was nice, thank you. In reality, I walked by grabbed a chunk of cheese and moved on.
BE THE THINGS YOU LOVE
FROM THE DESK OF STEVE HERRIGES, HEAD COACH CAMPBELLSPORT:
“Be the things you loved the most about the people who are gone.”
That one was shared by Ben McCarty – and I really like it! Thanks Ben!
Yesterday I pulled up some notes from 10 months ago when I took over the Head Coach role, and at the top of the page were these quotes/comments that I had on there to set the tone for the rest of the mission. The mission of leading this team. Supplying Happiness. Earning people’s trust, etc.. These are great reminders/motivators for everyone, and considering it fits into the quote-of-the-day theme, I wanted to share:
-No such thing as a bad day.
-Lead By Example
-Always Remember to be Kind
-People may not recall what you did/said…but will remember how you made them feel.
-Make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.
-It’s never wrong to do the right thing.
-Our minds don’t lead people, our hearts and our values do.
Notice, the start of my 5 pages of notes and goals had nothing to do with sales, or margin, or metrics of any sort. Those things come naturally when you focus on the roots. I would encourage anyone to do the same. And remind yourself of your priorities every day.
Donny and Richie Weyer have been working side by side for many years. In the past decade, they have been working most frequently in Kewaskum. Both retired I believe….or at least of retirement age, but just have a passion for swinging a hammer. Last weekend Richie had a heart attack on his way to church. He passed away days later. It was his time. It didn’t matter how many nails were left to pound or how much money in the bank or whatever other goals he had. The good Lord had other plans. That’s how it works, and that’s why you should live the way you want to be remembered. Stay the path. Keep the faith. Be good.
Take care team!
MOTIVATION WEARS OFF LIKE DEODORANT
TGIM!
Team,
State of Happiness was now 2 weeks ago. Gosh, seems like forever to me.
Like putting deodorant on, or some fresh cologne.
Feels fantastic.
Then two weeks later… we are back to stinky, stinky!
That’s motivation in a nut shell.
So #1, constantly find sources of motivation. That’s on you to find that. But that can be hard.
#2 maintain a list with deadlines. That will force you to stay on task.
MOST IMPORTANTLY BECOME OBSESSED WITH: DETAILS.
DETAILS.
DO YOU WANT TO BE AVERAGE OR EXCELLENT?
MOTIVATION = Average. You don’t really change anything, you just get a little blood flowing once in awhile. It feels good, but it’s not something that will carry you.
EXCELLENCE= DETAILS
Whether you feel like it or not, things require WORK. Boring, lazy, routine, work. No matter your role here or your life, it can be pretty damn average. Actually I think all of our lives are pretty damn average. And we should embrace that.
Hugging a love one, following up on a task, having a hard conversation, are what in the end — what mattered.
DETAILS.
The more detailed you are, the quicker you can be, the better you can get.
You might think I’m all big picture and work on cool shit.
Not really.
I buy vacuum cleaners for the office sometimes too.
And then in my detail orientated mind, I made a video of it. Took me 10 whole minutes. DON’T OVER THINK SHIT. GET SHIT DONE!
This will save us tons of hours and MONEY and STRESS going forward in a little way. But LIVING LIKE THIS opens ME UP FOR LOTS OF GAPS AND ROOMS AND TIME TO DO OTHER COOL STUFF WHEN IT COMES UP.
The video is incredibly average. Buying two was average. Some would say “beneath me.” I would never say that. It had to be done. So I did it. NO BIG DEAL.
You have to known when to delegate and ask for help, but sometimes you have to know SCREW IT, I will do it myself.
It’s a fine balance.
********************
IF YOU WANT ONE MORE NUGGET:
Lastly, if you went to someone’s house or had people over, I bet you found time some how to clean up to PREPARE FOR THEM. This winter, right now, act like you are having someone over (make room for that new project) and clean up. Get ready. That way if an opportunity or work explodes and presents itself you are ready (like having company over). Even if the company never shows up, you feel good!
BE READY!
MAKE IT HAPPEN.
JOEL
HOW TO REALLY MOTIVATE AND CHANGE THE WORLD
TGIM!
We are in the very middle of State of Happiness. Half of the team has heard from many of our leaders
on some exciting things happening.
We have shared our 2019 recap (a record year in many ways)
The future
And the “Whys” behind a few things we do.
An overall massive success and very motivating to be part of it each day.
But that is not the best way to motivate your team, and we can ALL motivate each other.
The GREATEST WAY TO MOTIVATE IS TO CARE. WITH ACCOUNTABILITY.
You CARE SO MUCH that you are hard on your team. You know they can excel.
You must do that with relationships. If you don’t know them, and know them damn well, laughed and cried with them, you haven’t EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE HARD ON THEM. So that comes first.
But then you must strengthen the commitment to our mission to our processes by working 1 on 1 and holding people to the HIGHEST OF STANDARDS. And then CELEBRATING when you see it happen.
So to recap how to build, lead, and grow a world class winning team:
A.) 1 on 1. Get to know your team as friends and family!
B.) BE BRUTUALLY HONEST AND CRITICAL. Show them and challenge them to be the BEST. Don’t settle for anything less from them.
C.) CELEBRATE WHEN YOU SEE IT HAPPENING!
I love the avengers series (and I don’t really like superhero stuff). One big reason why… is they are HARD on each other. But they do it, to save the world! They call B.S. when they see it. They are all very different, but work as one unit to save the world!
HAPPINESS IS SOLVING PROBLEMS
TGIT-
A quick one if you don’t have much time:
Speak life to others today. Share a kind word with everyone you interact with. You never know how much their soul might need it. “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” Proverbs 12:25
So be problem solvers! Oh… but that is not that easy. If it was we would all do this.
Here are some pitfalls to consider.
1. Denial. Thinking or saying things like… I don’t believe this is a problem. I don’t believe we have a problem. “It’s just the way this works. It’s just the way it’s always been.” I believe that is fear and/or laziness or honestly just not being self aware. That’s why outside perspective and critical feedback ARE GOOD THINGS.
2. Not MY problem. Oh how I loathe this one. Loathe. I wish someone would fix it. This is garbage, but whatever. Somebody has to train me. Someone has to fix this. This part of my job is so frustrating I wonder why the captain, coach, downtown, doesn’t see my problem. PEOPLE BE ACCOUNTABLE TO YOURSELF!
3. ENABLING. The trickiest one. So we are discussing how fixing a problem gives us joy! And it does. But if we are ENABLING and not fixing THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM. This will spiral COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL ON YOU. Be aware of the enablers. HELP THEM CHANGE! They love enabling it gives them JOY! But makes things worse! Oh, and do they hate to be told that, all the HELPING they are DOING is HURTING THE COMPANY. They MEAN WELL but must be made aware that their energy should be going to THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM, FIXING THE REAL PROBLEM ONCE AND FOR ALL…. and that when that is done, they will find another ROOT problem. We promise!
Facil,
Joel
WE DON’T WANT EASY, WE WANT CRAZY!
TGIT!
****
There’s a country song out right now with the lines…
“Yeah, I don’t want easy, I want crazy.” It’s a love story of course (and careful what you wish for buddy)…
But this can translate to Drexel. We are a growth company. One that is willing to have HARD CONVERSATIONS to grow as a team, to be world class. That’s hard. We do want to simply supply happiness and change the world along the way. We want everyone one of our builders to not imagine their business without Drexel as a part of it!
SO YEA, WE DON’T WANT EASY, WE WANT CRAZY!
**************************
From this article: https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey
This is a habit and discipline that would take overall Drexel time management and task completion to the next Level:
A monkey is a project. A monkey has to have someone to feed it.
THIS IS HOW YOU GO FROM DREAMERS TO HIGH ACHIEVERS!
Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and degree of initiative. These may be revised at any time by mutual consent but never allowed to become vague or indefinite.
At times, we are good at this, many other times, we aren’t. And when we aren’t, things fall by the wayside, creating a black hole of communication, and frustration among leaders and teammates…. all can be avoided if we are very disciplined to define a next feeding time and degree of initiative, with noting vague or indefinite.
In other words, specific actions to be completed, with deadlines that are followed up on and held accountable to, will always ensure important tasks are completed and communicated outward.
This is a big deal….and it works, when adhered to.
***********
One thing I just added is TEXTING FROM MY FRIGGIN COMPUTER. Cool man. Cool.
Here’s how to do it. Or ask one of your I.T. contacts to walk you thru it. Game changer dude when you are grinding on your computer. And you can send thought out texts instead of big finger ones…
https://support.google.com/messages/answer/7611075?hl=en
*****
“If our heads are full and our hearts are empty, we’ll just tip over.” Live in Grace; Walk in Love
*****
Here’s a pile of screenshots off my phone:
Many from our Drexel Truss System Trip to Columbus Ohio.
New found respect for some of our leaders that went there. WORLD CLASS GANG.
ROSS, RICH, BIG MIKE, CHRIS AND STEVE S.
WORLD CLASS.
WHAT THE HELL DOES THE DOWNTOWN TEAM DO?
TGIM!
So…
With focus groups and general listening, the team is asking for explanations of why the downtown team of approx 20 people do exactly?
And when they visit our stores what is the reason and what are they doing?
And why don’t they come more?
I’ll try to explain.
Why the downtown team?
While each of you have a role and your head coach (store leader) has a big role, with 8 locations and 430 full time people there are duties, jobs and functions that simply need to be done.
As my dad says, an elephant drinks a lot of water.
For instance:
4 people Andy H, Eric C, Albert, and Paul R-> ORDER ALL STOCK ITEMS, OVER 2,913!
Amber does payroll. 450 unique pay plans every 2 weeks.
Erin “SkrupDogg” and Kari W and Brett process all of our bills. Thousands a month. Thousands.
Justin and Caitlin answer, train, develop, organize, solve 450 solutions and problems. They intimately know each role and advise. With 450 someone always has questions. Lots of them usually.
EB, buys and sells dozens of vehicles yearly. Research analyzes and secures them.
Julie and Emily answer to our bank, accountants, attorneys and manage $200,000,000 million dollars in money. Hard to do your own finances at home? See how it would be at a company with 6 businesses in 1!
Pepper, Logan, and Griswald handle over 200 phone plans, 300 computers.
And on, and on.
BIG THING IS, I HAVE TONS OF IDEAS. SO DOES THE TEAM.
1 IN 100 ACTUALLY ARE GOOD IDEAS, BUT WE EXPLORE AND RESEARCH THEM ALL.
It took Nate Sippel, Albert and Joel at LEAST 75 LOOKS AT PROPERTY for the new yard in (hopefully) New Berlin, but even we won’t know that until April!
#PAULS off site construction. Where is that at? Lots of misses. Lots of opportunities. Lots of maybes. Lots of work with little traction. That’s how this works.
It’s like the lightbulb. 1,000 failures!
1,000
As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Trust me, I’m not sending a company e-mail with every step. You gotta trust us… it’s a work in progress! Boring and slow, but we show up and do the work.
Why can’t they be at my location more, I love their energy:
8 locations. 5 days in a week. Mondays are the focus meetings where we all formally meet in each dept once a week. So down to 4. Let’s say one more office day. 1 customer facing day.
That’s down to 2 days a week to travel. If equally shared that’s each location once a month. Now say it’s a new location, so we go there more. So your location is doing great, like a kid that is grown up and we have a kid in diapers. So you guessed it, maybe 3 or even 4 months before we make it to you.
That’s just math.
So new diaper dandies expect us once a month. or more.
Grown ups, quarterly.
Like any dad, that doesn’t seem NEAR ENOUGH. I love being at the stores, but math is math. That’s the pulse and reality of this.
No worries, you guys got this!
So when we arrive, what are they doing?
I feel like I am being monitored sometimes, it’s uncomfortable!?
Yep, that is part of our job to observe, identify coaching moments and go from there. If you are UNCOMFORTABLE, GET A MIRROR, THAT’S ON YOU! (SORRY, HARSH.) We are not a threat, we are your help if needed.
Our team might bring there work, they do have work to do!
They can help if you ask and will gladly do, but there role is not to relieve pressure when they work by you (although if asked it certainly is part of it.)
But… I want someone next to me MORE, HELPING ME!…
THINK SMALL. THINK THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU.
THINK A VETERAN ACCOUNT MANAGER OR ESTIMATOR THINK AN EX-CARPENTER.
NO TEAM IS VERY LARGE IF YOU DRILL IT DOWN, maybe 5-20 people. THAT’S SMALL!
OK, I hope that helps.
It does come down to each of us TRUSTING each other. Every one has a role, everyone has duties. Together we conquer the WORLD!
LASTLY,
WE, US, NOT THEM. THERE IS NO THEM. IT’S JUST US.
450 PEOPLE SUPPLYING HAPPINESS.
ELIMINATE THE THEMS IN YOUR VOCABULARY!
If in doubt, ASK!
FACIL,
Joel
DISCOURAGEMENT
Discouragement.
It happens so fast. The plan we had didn’t fall into place.
The idea we had didn’t go anywhere.
The communication we thought we had didn’t take place.
The person we are trying to change is never going to change.
The day was planned, but the day took over.
The fact is we know we are better than this, but we failed.
Again.
DISCOURAGEMENT.
THE PROBLEM IS DISCOURAGEMENT LEADS TO
GIVING UP.
QUITTING.
And that’s never ok.
Fall 7, Rise 8. It’s more important to rise, then to fall.
But it’s real.
We QUIT
On ourselves.
On them.
On everything.
When we quit, we get bitter, defensive, angry, and much, much worse.
The ONLY way to COMBAT DISCOURAGEMENT:
Is to encourage. And you can ONLY do that through Encouraging THOSE ARE YOU.
That’s why we always have to be picking each other up, dusting them off, and telling them I BELIEVE IN YOU.
BE ENCOURAGING, SAY THINGS LIKE “YOU ARE ALMOST THERE. YOU CAN DO THIS.”
Simply believe what you are doing is worth it. BELIEVE.
Encourage.
— Facil,
Joel
RANDOM THOUGHTS
TGIM!
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND GO.
This week BELIEVE. Believe God has a plan for you. Believe it will work out. Believe.
****
Life is short. AMAZINGLY SHORT. Blink of an eye short. That is not sad, it’s amazing. Enjoy the ride my friends.
****
Gaps. Talked to a builder last week. He doesn’t leave gaps. Goes from thing to thing. I said, leave gaps. That way you are relaxed. Ready for the unexpected. And even if you are late, you are on time.
****
Seriously, ARE YOU THE PERSON YOU WANT TO HANG AROUND? Look in the mirror. Ask yourself, am I that person?
****
ESSENTIALISM. I love that term. Priorities. We must set priorities. Then stay there. Live there. If we are overwhelmed, that is a ME thing, not a WORK THING. If your job duties, business, work load has grown, what tasks did you give up along the way? OH, NONE. HA, I BE YOU ARE STRESSED. GIVE UP TO GROW!
WE HAVE TO DO MUCH LESS. WE HAVE TO IMPACT MUCH MORE!
*****
I was asked last week to put down 3 things that I thought we would accomplish the next 3 years and be proud of.
- HAPPY SALES NINJAS. I just want our sales people HAPPY. TRAINED ASSASSINS. HAPPY mostly though. I see so many stressed out, burning those around them, and for what? It’s something I know we will accomplish.
- Be top workplace back to back years. Wouldn’t that be fun?
3. Be a company where our clients business can’t thrive without us. I like that one too.
*****
For me personally in the next 3 years, I want to have less control of the company, but influence more. Steve Jobs said something along the lines of, you don’t hire smart people to give them a plan. You hire smart people so they can make a plan.
My themes are always the same. Probably almost boring if you know me. Love, Serve, Care. Etc.
That’s a good thing I think.
*****
For our customers, we have to do MORE. They want our help. Doug Berg, a rockstar in Columbus, is trying to help a builder, create value so the contractor won’t thrive without our uniqueness. He said he is putting 4 to 5 hours a day into the last 2 weeks. CRAMMING like it’s a college paper. It’s wonderful. He’s learning so much. You must put the dedicated work in to achieve this.
We aren’t going to “try one job” and see how it goes, we are going to “help his business”.
Prioritized work.
****
I bet you can make someone’s day brighter today. I just know it. And if you can’t that’s ok too. But just don’t make it WORSE for them.
****
Here’s something odd you probably wouldn’t assume. I love Winnie the Pooh. Always have.
Here’s a great Pooh story I will leave you with.
It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.
“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”
Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”
“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.
FACIL,
JOEL
Joel Fleischman's Blog 